The struggle continues towards a genuine and lasting emancipation: South Africa in the past 20 years

Abstract

The article underlines the fact that most of the problems facing the African National Congress (ANC) as the ruling party in South Africa are not new. A comparative analysis of the ANC's Consultative Conference held at Morogoro in 1969 with its national conference held 38 years later at Polokwane in 2007 proves this glaring point. The article also focuses on the battle of ideas by highlighting the intellectual struggles waged by African leaders against neo-colonialism ? including racist white rule in apartheid South Africa. These leaders, including Kwame Nkrumah, Mwalimu Nyerere and O.R. Tambo among others, emphasised the centrality of both African and international solidarity in the struggle for national liberation in South Africa. Their viewpoints can be contrasted with intellectual diatribe against the national liberation struggle in South Africa spewed by white academics such as Belinda Bozzoli and Peter Delius. The latter were also dismissive of the role of African...